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Holler QUOTES

Holler QUOTES

1 " There is a time for morning, Ecclesiastes says, and of course there is. But up in the hills, in the Thirties, morning and joy almost always breathed the same air...Our world was bitter and sweet; more like cough syrup than good whiskey---hits your throat and leaves you shuddering and gagging and wanting just a little more. That's how it was in the holler---sad songs set to banjo-twanged two-steps; hard times and laughter and kinship and the deep, unsettling fear of the Lord. Praise Him so His hand don't turn against you. Praise Him for the good things. Praise Him in the hard times; bittersweet. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

2 " Spring was coming, either way, even in nasty old March---in like a lion, out like a lamb. That's what folks say. But that year, it came less like a lion and more like a mule with a skittish streak and muscly haunches; one solid kick and that was all. One hard, white freeze and that was all. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

3 " I take it they're given to vulgarity in front of ladies in New York, too."

He grinned. "Oh, there are no ladies in New York."

"Then they can keep their indoor toilets because I'd rather have my dignity. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

4 " I just...I got scared is all. What if he's right and the Kingdom is at hand? And I got this hate in my heart for my own husband?"

Jean-Louise sighed, long and weary. "Well, honey, let me tell you---the Kingdom probably ain't at hand. But if you hate the man, it's alright. 'Least you feel something on account of him. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

5 " Even them that knew better what say those things, just the same; rebuilt his story like a shabby house with good bones. A bit of plaster, a splash of paint; the crags and breaks are filled---the shadows have no hollow place to fall. That's how it goes. The good fills in the cracks. And from a distance it's all new and light and promise. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

6 " She was here and she was ours and she was herself---life in the midst of the dying things, born when the trees were naked and the earth and sky were all the same muddy gray color. The world beyond our window was ugly and dark, and we wrapped her in a pale blanket while she slept between us. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

7 " What in the hell has gotten into you?" Jean-Louise shoted. "Have you been possessed by a roving spirit of stupidity? "

― Allie Ray , Holler

8 " I was sharp and thin, a bone-faced girl like all the other bone-faced girls they printed in magazines: Here is the Great Depression. Color of dust; pale brown hair and drab, blue-gray eyes. Color of the sky on days when bad things are about to happen. Color of droughts and heat and withering things. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

9 " Perhaps it makes as much sense Junior's way as any way, to believe hanged folks are still hanging gray and smoky overhead. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

10 " I can recall the way he swung back and forth in the wind, for I remember thinking in my child's mind, Ain't a body no heavier than that? "

― Allie Ray , Holler

11 " Back then I thought that men, like sins, could be done away with a little water. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

12 " You don't got to pull me back up, Preacher. It's just as well you hold me down beneath the waters. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

13 " My brother Junior said there was only one baptism, but I think of how the earth goes to be baptized every year. For what is snow but water? And what is winter but the cleansing death? And then spring comes fit to bursting with new life---comes out from the death of winter like Lazarus from the cave, and heaven and nature starts itself over again. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

14 " Then came July like three o'clock in the afternoon, hot and listless and miserable. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

15 " It was hard to tell a thing about my new self when I didn't look so different after all. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

16 " And I'm here to say that time does heal things up---all things, I reckon; but some things...Some things leave behind dreadful ugly scars. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

17 " Honey, if you must swear in the Lord's house, the lease you can do is keep it quiet enough so it stays between you and God. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

18 " Was I to go on living forever in love with a man who had no care for me, and never had? Was that what he wrote in the dedication? I hadn't lived my whole life. I was only twenty-two years old; and was I to love him for the rest of it, miserable and lonesome? Was that what James Sutton thought of Ozark women---women like me? That we just go on and on for want and never do find peace?

He had us all wrong. At least, he had me all wrong. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

19 " He must have seen. But like a child who believes there's a monster in the corner of his room, the truth was too simple and ordinary to bear. I told him I didn't love him, and he watched me like a ghostly shadow on the wall---watched hard for me to flicker, or twitch, or form the shape of a miserable thing. Hoping he might catch a glimpse of the Ozark Woman after all. "

― Allie Ray , Holler

20 " Though last I heard, the Devil ain't an old Southern woman. Thank God for that. "

― Allie Ray , Holler